It served one of the most ambitious tasting menus in the country, had diners clamoring for reservations every month and was the first restaurant from one of Los Angeles' most prominent celebrity chefs, but next month, Maude will close after a decade in Beverly Hills, making way for Curtis Stone's Pie Room.
In a surprise announcement, the chef who was once the Times critic Jonathan Gold once called “The only food TV star that everyone actually likes” said Maude would close on September 28, with a permanent retaliation of Your pop-up cake shop in the pandemic era taking his place.
Stone said she decided to close Maude to focus on expanding her pie shops and her restaurant Gwen in Hollywood.
With a new 6,000-square-foot off-site bakery to help with demand, the chef hopes to reopen Curtis Stone’s Pie Room in full swing this fall.
“It’s a mix of emotions,” Stone said. “My wife asked me, ‘How are you feeling?’ and I was crying. She asked me, ‘Why are you crying?’ I said, ‘I don’t know if I’m happy or sad. ’ It’s very emotional, but ultimately it’s a good thing. When I look around that dining room, every little object and every little corner tells me a story.”
The Melbourne-born chef and TV personality, who had worked with legendary London chef Marco Pierre White, came to the U.S. to participate in a food TV show but felt disconnected not working in a restaurant. When he became a father, he wanted to raise his children in a home where they would see their father wake up and go to the same job every day, so he began planning his first restaurant.
Maude opened with monthly menus dedicated to a single ingredient, conceptualizing a new 10-course tasting menu every 30 days—an ambitious and well-received feat that would highlight corn, truffles, apples, asparagus, or almonds, depending on which month you finally managed to score a reservation.
Celery root with Chartreuse raisins and chervil, served at Maude in 2015.
(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
“It was a challenge, especially in a restaurant that required the menu to change every month,” he said. “The rhythm was this: you’d roll out the new menu in the first week and start getting everything ready and everyone at the stations knew what they were supposed to do, and by week 2, you had it all really dialed in. And if you got to week 3 without working on the next menu, you were in trouble.”
The enthusiasm for each new menu item, the raves, the limited seating and the lively nature of the concept made Maude one of the most sought-after spots in town for years. (It took Gold about 50 attempts to get a reservation until she got help from friends and acquaintances.)
Aware that this was not a sustainable model, Stone reworked the concept to focus on wine regions in 2017, with each menu based on produce, spices and signature dishes from a given locality — paired, of course, with wine. More recently, Stone said his menus at Maude have simply focused on details, consistency and seasonality.
In 2020, indoor dining bans nearly closed Maude for good. The pandemic would have been a good stopping point for the Beverly Hills restaurant, Stone said, but she needed an immediate pivot to keep some of her staff working and make use of the space. In early 2021, she turned to the familiar flavors of her Australian upbringing and opened the casual, takeout-only Pie Room by Gwen to offer sweet and savory pies, cookies, sausage rolls and other baked goods.
The chef’s Pie Room pop-up restaurant operated in the Maude space through Thanksgiving 2021. It is set to return in October 2024.
(Gwen's Cake Room / Andrea D'Agosto)
But Maude was never meant to be a bakery. After Pie Room by Gwen closed and the space was reverted back to Maude's ownership, the pies went into hibernation.
But Pie Room fans still ask about the pie shop.
Capitalizing on his popularity, Stone signed a lease that would add an outpost. adjacent to the Topanga Social food hall in Canoga Parkbut its opening has been delayed.
She also signed a lease for the 6,000-square-foot bakery, which now serves as a commissary for making cakes, pastries and pantry items found at Gwen and local farmers markets with the help of head baker Luis Flores and executive pastry chef Mitzi Reyes.
He had considered keeping Maude while expanding the Pie Room, but realized there weren’t enough hours in the day. Maude, with its technique-driven execution and meticulous wine pairings, requires a lot of attention, with about 20 employees cooking and serving just 20 people in the dining room. “It requires an incredible amount of energy, focus, effort and creativity,” he said.
Following Maude’s closure in September, the team expects a quick transition. The space will offer casual seating, including banquettes and a limited patio, plus cake cases and refrigerators for packaged goods like chutneys and other condiments. The chef hopes to offer Gwen’s wine, cheese and charcuterie in addition to everything produced in-house.
Curtis Stone's Hollywood restaurant, Gwen, serves lunchtime sandwiches on homemade bread, as well as sweet and savory pies and cakes.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
When the Pie Room by Curtis Stone reopens in October, the off-site bakery will serve as the base for most of its pies and desserts, though Stone hopes to bake on-site as well. He envisions new pie varieties and more, and thanks to a designated chocolate room in the new bakery, Reyes “has all kinds of fun things on the way, ready for Beverly Hills.”
Over the past few months at Gwen, some of the Pie Room’s signature dishes have started to appear under little glass cloches and on the pastry shelves. Sandwiches have also returned to Gwen after years away, with the new menu focusing on braised dishes like duck leg, chicken with leeks and beef cheek, plus a selection of fluffy housemade rolls, crispy-crusted stecca and fluffy seeded breads.
Expect all this and more in Beverly Hills in October, and eventually at the Pie Room in Canoga Park as well.
Gwen, her living fire, Michelin-starred fine dining restaurant in Hollywoodwill serve as Stone's sole fine-dining focal point, with some of Maude's details poured into that menu.
At 10, Stone said she would rather close Maude's doors to a successful career than one day try to turn it around again, or lose focus or quality trying to balance her three concepts.
“I would never want Maude to lose its popularity,” Stone said. “It has always been a popular and beautiful restaurant and I want to keep it that way.”
